The knee-high socks are knitted on 3 mm double-pointed needles using Alize Forever crochet thread. That was one big mistake: the thread is slippery and the needles keep falling out. I had to unravel and redo so much and pick up so many dropped stitches. It immediately reminded me that in Soviet times there used to be a special stocking-stitch pickup tool. Completely necessary, because stockings were repaired then and dropped stitches were constantly being picked up.
I started with 60 stitches, 15 on each needle.
Round 1 knit, round 2 purl, round 3 knit. Then the pattern.
There are now 48 stitches on the needles. I continued with pattern no. 2 until the leg measured about 8 cm, then pattern no. 3. I stopped at the point marked by the arrow and on the final row decreased 2 stitches at the beginning of each needle. That left 11 stitches on each needle, 44 altogether.
Next pattern. On the final row I decreased 2 stitches at the beginning of each needle, leaving 10 stitches per needle and 40 altogether, then moved on to the next pattern. At this point the sock should measure about 20 cm, depending on yarn, needles and tension. Then the heel begins. If you want, you can put the 21 instep stitches on a stitch holder; I left them on the needles and nothing terrible happened. I knitted the 19 heel stitches back and forth for 10 rows, about 4 cm. Then I shaped the heel: knitted until 5 stitches remained, knitted 2 together, turned, knitted until 5 remained, knitted 2 together and turned. I kept knitting to the previous decrease, knitting 2 together and turning until the side stitches were gone and 11 stitches remained. Then I picked up 11 stitches along each side and divided the sole stitches between two needles, 16 on one and 17 on the other.
On the instep I worked the pattern in the centre and knitted the remaining stitches in stocking stitch.
On every pattern row I decreased the stitches picked up at the sides; on the plain knit row I did not decrease, so the decreases were every other row.
I knitted the decreases through the back loop so large holes would not appear. Eventually I had 10 stitches on every needle. I continued until the sole measured 11 cm, then started shaping the toe, decreasing 2 stitches with a slip-over decrease at the beginning of every needle on every round. I decrease right to the end rather than pulling yarn through several stitches. It is fiddly: when there are 2 stitches on each needle, I put them onto two needles and decrease them, then move the remaining 4 stitches onto one needle, decrease twice more and finally knit the last 2 together. I pull the end inside the sock with a crochet hook and it looks perfectly fine.
For the tie I crocheted a chain of 120 stitches and worked back in half trebles.
The socks were intended to come over the knee, and that is exactly how they turned out.
And more knee-high socks, several years later: classic lace knee-highs with pom-poms.
